Statement of Support Against Grave Alt-Right Attacks on Graduate Student Instructor

We are deeply concerned about the case of a graduate student in the
English department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who is
under attack by the alt-right, both on and off campus. On campus she has
been the target of threats and harassment by a UMass undergraduate,
Louis Shenker, whose Internet presence, including the
“MinutemanBroadcast,” identifies him as an extreme alt-right personality
who uses incel language.

On November 12th at an event being held
at a full-house crowd of 1600 people at the Fine Arts Center at UMass
entitled “Criminalizing Dissent: The Attack on BDS and Pro-Palestinian
Voices,” Shenker, in a premeditated plan, disrupted the event. He
shouted racial slurs at the speakers, who included Linda Sarsour, Cornel
West and Shaun King. Even before his outburst he had been verbally
harassing the graduate student, who is his former teacher, saying he was
“going to get her.” He proudly filmed his disruption so he would have
video footage for his subsequent self-promoting publicity campaign.

Not
surprisingly, within twenty-four hours he had been invited onto Alex
Jones’ Info Wars for a half-hour interview, reaching a massive audience
of dangerous alt-right fanatics. The graduate student was the focus of
his ire, and for weeks he has systematically and repeatedly spread her
personal information, including her name, photo, and department, across
alt-right networks.

In the following two weeks this campaign of
abuse, the targeting of the graduate student has spread even further
with alt-right media celebrities such as Michelle Malkin and Laura
Loomer amplifying the threats. On social media Shenker constantly refers
to his target as his ex-teacher in the English department and as a
terrorist/jihadist, while simultaneously posting that he will shoot
Amherst terrorists. He uses various incendiary terms to set a white
nationalist audience on this individual, and compel action from that
audience.

This is not a matter of protected free speech as
Shenker has repeatedly threatened the graduate student, promising to
bring “fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen” on
his former teacher. As other students and teachers have seen these
messages online, they are, not surprisingly, also concerned about their
own safety on campus, and there is an atmosphere of fear in the
department.

Given the nature of Shenker’s widespread audience and
ties to hate groups, and the ways in which those responding to him
online suggest violence, the graduate student is increasingly concerned
for her safety as his reputation spread across alt-right networks.
Shenker is getting more emboldened the more his reputation spreads
across the alt-right networks. When he was served with an
anti-harassment order issued by the Northampton District Court, he
immediately violated it by posting threats online and was subsequently
arrested. The Northampton Police Department have expressed concern about
the threat he poses. The graduate student has been placed on
administrative leave from teaching for the rest of the semester for her
own safety.

Meanwhile, the university has repeatedly disseminated
misinformation about the status of the case and publically dismissed
the threats posed, compelling graduate students to return to work.
Despite being the victim at the center of the crisis, no one from the
administration has communicated with the graduate student or her
attorneys.

What Shenker does as a private citizen is one thing.
What he does as a student at the University of Massachusetts is a matter
for the university administration. For reasons that escape us, they
have been strangely passive regarding his actions despite the fact that
he has already violated the Student Code of Conduct by his disruption of
the Fine Arts Center event, and has created an environment of fear on
campus with his campaign of harassment against his former teacher. If
the University is serious about its claims that “Hate has no home at
UMASS” or that it is committed to “building a community of dignity and
trust,” then it must move swiftly to take protective action to protect
the campus from Shenker – including expulsion and a no-contact order.
Given the concerns that some law-enforcement personnel have about the
threat he and the alt-right networks pose, anything less amounts to
severe negligence regarding the safety of individual students/staff and
the campus as a whole.